Yesterday once more

Press, 18 December 1986, Page 14

Yesterday once more

By

TONY GREEN

Meet the exciting new stars of 1986 — Phil Collins, Genesis, Dire Straits, Tina Turner, Peter Gabriel, Steve Winwood ... hold on, what year is. this again? Yes, you could be forgiven for thinking that (shudder) the good old days of 1974 are back again. Surely it’s only a matter of time before the Tull revival, the Floyd revival, the Yes revival and the Moody Blues exhumation are upon us. If there was ever any doubt that rock music has become just another marketable commodity, this was the year that removed it.

Not only was the bulk of it safe, album-oriented, MTV-style establishment Muzak, but suddenly consumers found they needed a gold credit card to be able to play it! Compact discs and FM radio had arrived. “It’s like having the cotton wool suddenly pulled from your ears,” gushed one local DJ, who presumably consigned all his old, “badly-recorded” music (such as The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Elvis Presley!) to the dumper. Expensive FM receivers and CD players now rule. The music itself is relatively unimportant, compared to the lack of hiss and crackle obtained on the newest yuppie “system.”

All harmless upwardlymobile fun, I suppose, but the inherent elitism, not to mention the huge amounts of money being spent on the most worthless music, make me shed a tear for Phil Spector’s “Bring Back MONO!!” catchpiece of a few years back ...

In the United Kingdom, the independent scene was in its healthiest state in years. Finally free of the Joy Division plagiarism that was the death of many underground bands, the new sound was a welcome return to the boisterous pop of the postpunk 1978-80 years.

Some of it lacks in originality, but already Primal Scream, That Petrol Emotion, The Soup Dragons and others look like making a big impact on 1987.

Of course, one of these bands has already made an impact — The Jesus and Mary Chain shook some life back into pop music with their thrilling debut LP, “Psychocandy,” and last month’s ace “Some Candy Talking” EP.

Other cult favourites to make it through 1986

were The Smiths, who finally broke back into the charts overseas with the single “Panic,” The Cure, whose greatest hits LP stood out in a year littered with compilations, and Husker Du, the. Minneapolis post-hardcore band.

Talking of “RWP,” the loss of our precious videos for a few months really had little effect, apart from cutting out the only real opportunity for local bands to get exposure. (About “True Colours,” the less said, the better.)

In New Zealand, it was a quiet year on the charts for local bands Ardijah had success with “Give Me Your Number,’*’ and then scored a major coup, winning the $30,000 Rheineck rock music award to record an album.

But the only other success came from dependable Dave Dobbyn, riding the wave of “Footrotmania” all the way to No. 1.

Flying Nun seemed to move even further away from the mainstream this year, resulting in a fairly low-key 1986, in spite of consolidating . their overseas success with The Chills LP, “Kaleidoscope World.” New bands like Goblin Mix and The Alpaca Brothers were interesting, but the excitement of The Bird Nest Roys and The Chills was sorely missed for most of the year. Sneaky Feelings agains showed their class with the superb “Better Than Before” single, the year’s best from a New Zealand band. The commercial aspirations of their new single “Coming True” are obvious, but if ever a band deserved wider recognition, Sneaky Feelings is it.

In Christchurch, the occasional Radio U soul disco provided the only real alternative to the mechanised dross of the current crop of nightclubs (seemingly bent only on having the best light show). Working up a sweat with James Brown, The Dazz Band, Trouble Funk and others was great — wake up, DJs! I suppose , mention should also be made of radio, and its “self-im-posed” 10 per cent local music quota, but it seems pretty futile in a media where ad space is priority No. 1, and the new Dance Exponents or Sneaky Feelings single mean less than zero (Radio U exempt, of course). It is depressingly obvious that rock ’n’ roll music has been bought out by big business, and

sold back to the gullible consumer at extortionate rates.

The heart is still beating — but you will hear it better in a local music pub than jam-packed into a rugby field watching socalled “superstars” going through the motions. And now, The Green awards for 1986: Best overseas act: A tricky one, with no real guiding light, but I suppose The Jesus and Mary Chain, R.E.M. (in spite of a patchy new LP), Talking Heads, and Elvis Costello were all essential listening.

Best overseas albums: The Jesus and Mary Chain, "Psychocandy.” Run DMC, “Raising Hell.” Talking Heads, “True Stories.” Shriekback, “Big Night Music.” The Cramps, “A Date With Elvis.” Nick Cave, “Kicking Against the ‘Pricks.” Prince, “Parade.” Elvis Costello, “King of America.”

Best overseas single or EP: Run-DMC, “Walk. This Way.” The Cure, “Close To Me.” The Jesus and Mary Chain, “Some Candy Talking.” Full Force, “Alice, I Want You.” The Pretenders, “Don’t Get Me Wrong.” George Clinton, “Do Fries Go With That Shake?” The Dazz Band, “Let It All Blow” (re-issue). In a class of its own, however, is “Kiss,” from Prince — a real desert island disc. Best N.Z. Band: Sneaky Feelings remain superb, although The Chills were inactive for most of this year.

Best N.Z. LP: Nothing major this year — The Chills “Kaleidoscope World” compilation and Sneaky Feelings “Taking Sides” tape-only release were both excellent, as was much of Dance Exponents "Amplifier.” Best N.Z. single: Sneaky Feelings, “Better Than Before.” Also The Able Tasmans EP; The Bird Nest Roys, “Whack It

All Down” EP; The JeanPaul Satre Experience EP; Sneaky Feelings, “Coming True”; Dave Dobbyn and Herbs, “Slice of Heaven.” “Zither,” from The Alpaca Brothers EP, would have made a great single. Best Compilation: The incomparable “Atlantic Rhythm’n’ Blues” box-set —- 14 albums of seminal black music. Also The Cure’s singles LP and (ahem) Wham’s “The Final.”

Best Videos: The Cure, “Close To Me.” The The, “Sweet Bird of Truth.” George Clinton, “Do Fries Go With That Shake?” Run-DMC, “Walk This Way.”

Best new overseas band: Run-DMC. (Watch also for That Petrol Emotion.) Best new N.Z.; hand: Who else? The Jean-Paul Satre Experience, mediahype and all! ; \ '

Best overseas concert: Shriekback were a revelation, but The Go-Betweens should not be forgotten. Best N.Z. concert: The Bird Nest Boys were good, but The Jean-Paul Satre Experience at The Gladstone recently were better.

Good Things in 1986: The Chills finally reforming; Shriekback; The Johnns calling Dick Driver “more butch than usual, Karen!”; Radio U and other campus radio, Flying Nun’s “takeover by stealth”overseas strategy; the video war; Karen Hay’s quota petition. Bad things in 1986: The Cramps not playing in Christchurch; “True Colours”; Bloody Phil Collins; “Addicted To Love”; lack of decent local venues for Christchurch bands; Dire Straits; the morons who kicked in the Town Hall doors at The Residents gig; Phil Collins; “Gladstone to go residency” rumours; The Bird Nest Roys splitting; and Phil Collins. Part II next week.